America's Kids Are Getting Shortchanged On Every Major Issue

Robert
Reich is one of the nation’s leading experts on work
and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public
Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the
University of California at Berkeley. He has served in
three national administrations, most recently as
secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton.

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America’s children seem to be shortchanged on almost every issue
we face as a society.

Not only are we failing to protect our children from
deranged people wielding semi-automatic guns.

We’re not protecting them from poverty. The rate of child poverty
keeps rising – even faster than the rate of adult poverty. We now
have the highest rate of child poverty in the
developed world.

And we’re not protecting their health. Rates of child diabetes
and asthma continue to climb. America has the third-worst rate of
infant mortality among 30 industrialized nations and the
second-highest rate of teenage pregnancy, after Mexico.

If we go over the “fiscal cliff” without a budget deal, several
programs focused on the well-being of children will be axed —
education, child nutrition, school lunches, children’s health,
Head Start. Even if we avoid the cliff, any “grand
bargain” to tame to deficit is likely to jeopardize them.

The Urban Institute projects the share of
federal spending on children (outlays and tax expenditures) will
drop from 15 percent last year to 12 percent in 2022.

At the same time, states and localities have been slashing
preschool and after-school programs, child care, family services,
recreation, and mental-health services.

Why?

Conservatives want to blame parents for not doing their job. But
this ignores politics.

The NRA, for example, is one of the most powerful lobbies in
America – so powerful, in fact, that our leaders rarely have the
courage even to utter the words gun control.

A few come forth after a massacre such as occurred in Connecticut
to suggest that maybe we could make it slightly more difficult
for the mentally ill to obtain assault weapons. But the gun
lobby and gun manufacturers routinely count on America’s (and
media’s) short attention span to prevent even modest reform.

The AARP is also among the most powerful lobbies, especially when
it comes to preserving programs that benefit seniors.

We shouldn’t have to choose between our seniors and children —
I’d rather focus on jobs and growth rather deficit reduction, and
sooner cut corporate welfare and defense spending than anything
else. But the brute fact is America’s seniors have political
clout that matters when spending is being cut, while children
don’t.

At the same time, big corporations and the wealthy know how to
get and keep tax cuts that are starving federal and state budgets
of revenues needed to finance what our children need.
Corporations systematically play off one state or city against
another for tax concessions and subsidies to stay or move
elsewhere, further shrinking revenues available for education,
recreation, mental health, and family services.

Meanwhile, advertisers and marketers of junk foods and violent
video games have the political heft to ward off regulations
designed to protect children from their depredations. The result
is an epidemic of childhood diabetes, as well as video mayhem
that may harm young minds.

Most parents can’t protect their children from all this. They
have all they can do to pay the bills. The median wage keeps
falling (adjusted for inflation), benefits are evaporating, job
security has disappeared, and even work hours are less
predictable.

It seems as if every major interest has political clout – except
children. They can’t vote. They don’t make major campaign
donations. They can’t hire fleets of lobbyists.

Yet they’re America’s future.

Their parents and grandparents care, of course, as do many other
private citizens. But we’re no match for the entrenched interests
that dominate American politics.

Whether it’s fighting for reasonable gun regulation, child health
and safety overall, or good schools and family services – we
can’t have a fair fight as long as special-interest money
continues to poison our politics.